Chapter 382: Terror
Chapter 382: Chapter 382: Terror
After a delightful picnic, the students thought they would spend the afternoon enjoying the mountain scenery. But who could have known their autumn outing would be completely shattered by a sudden scare.
"AH—"
Su Qing and a few of the other girls had planned to pick more wild mushrooms. The ones they’d eaten today were delicious, and they wanted to gather a larger batch to take back and dry in Su Qing’s courtyard. The boys, however, had no interest in such things. They excitedly scattered, ready to properly explore the valley. It wasn’t long, though, before a panicked scream grabbed everyone’s attention.
"It came from the west side of the pool," Liu Juan said, her head snapping toward the sound.
"That’s Xie Lei’s voice." Ye Qingqing had the sharpest ears. She quickly said, "Don’t you think Xie Lei and the others ran into some kind of danger?"
"I’ll go check it out." Su Qing frowned slightly. ’If I remember correctly, we found a cave on the west side of the pool this morning while we were hunting. Xie Lei seemed pretty interested in it back then, but he didn’t go in because we were busy. Now that we have free time this afternoon, he must have gone into that cave. He probably ran into some kind of trouble.’
"I’m going too."
"I’ll go check it out too."
Li Huan and the others forgot all about picking mushrooms and hurried to go with Su Qing.
Su Qing didn’t stop them, leading Li Huan and the others as they hurried toward the cave.
"Su Qing." Halfway there, they ran into Huo Tao and his group. "You guys heard the scream too."
"Yeah," Su Qing said. "It was Xie Lei’s voice. I suspect he went into that cave from this morning."
"What!" Huo Tao hadn’t expected that. "Then let’s hurry up and take a look," he said quickly.
"Okay."
The two groups joined up and quickly found the cave they had seen that morning. Su Qing took the lead and went straight inside.
"Xie Lei! Fang Xin! Are you in there?" Huo Tao shouted. He knew Xie Lei had left with Fang Xin, who had also been curious about the cave that morning.
"Quick... quick, save Fang Xin!" Soon, Xie Lei’s terrified, panicked voice came from up ahead.
"What happened to Fang Xin? Don’t be afraid, we’re here!" Hearing Xie Lei’s reply, the group breathed a sigh of relief. He really was in here. But from the sound of it, something had happened to Fang Xin. Everyone’s heart tightened, especially Huo Tao’s. He was the class monitor, the one who had brought everyone on this trip. ’If something happened to anyone, I’d never be able to forgive myself.’
Immediately, the group hurried deeper into the cave, following the sound of Xie Lei’s voice.
The inside of the cave was damp, with clumps of weeds growing in the corners. Before they had even reached Xie Lei, Su Qing first looked ahead through the perspective of these weeds. What she saw made her freeze. She quickly stopped Li Huan and the others. "You girls, don’t go any further."
"Huh? What’s wrong, Qingqing?" Li Huan and the other girls were bewildered. Li Huan trusted Su Qing the most, so she stopped in her tracks immediately, but she was still curious.
"Su Qing, is something wrong?" Seeing her serious expression, Huo Tao felt a chill and quickly asked.
Su Qing obviously couldn’t say what she had just seen, so she just said, "I think I smell something... off. To be safe, anyone who’s easily scared should probably stay back."
"Ah, Su Qing, you don’t mean there’s a..." One of the boys with Huo Tao reacted the quickest, his eyes widening at her words.
"I suspect there might be," Su Qing said, glancing at the boy. "In any case, if you’re timid, stay here."
"Oh, then I’m not going. I’ll wait here," Li Huan said at once.
"I’m not going either."
"I’d better wait here."
Hearing this, the girls all quickly agreed to wait where they were. As for the boys, even if some of them were scared, they saw that Su Qing, a girl, was still going in. If a grown boy like them got scared and waited outside, how embarrassing would that be? So, no matter how uneasy they felt, none of them said they would stay behind.
As the class monitor, Huo Tao certainly couldn’t back down. So, Su Qing continued deeper into the cave with the remaining boys.
"Xie Lei, where are you?" Huo Tao shouted as they walked.
"Here! Here! There’s... there’s a..." Xie Lei’s voice was filled with terror. He was clearly so frightened he could barely speak properly. Hearing this, the boys’ hearts sank.
However, even though they had braced themselves, when they finally found Xie Lei and Fang Xin, the scene before them still made them gasp in horror. One of the boys let out a terrified scream, stumbled back several steps, and immediately leaned against the cave wall, retching.
Huo Tao stared at the scene in shock.
Logically, this deep inside the cave, it should have been pitch-black. However, some light was being refracted from an unknown source, making the cave not quite so dark and allowing them to see the situation inside clearly.
Fang Xin had already passed out. Xie Lei was slumped on the ground beside him, his legs apparently too weak to let him stand up. Next to them lay two extinguished torches. And in a corner of the cave not far in front of them, a skeleton was propped against the wall.
An ordinary skeleton wouldn’t have frightened Xie Lei and Fang Xin this badly. But this particular skeleton sent a biting chill straight through Huo Tao’s heart.